Washington Square (Henry James)
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
40 free Washington Square (Henry James) trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Henry James needed only a short novel to tell one of the coldest family stories in American fiction. A shy young woman, a brilliant father who cannot hide his low opinion of her, a handsome caller with no profession, and a meddling aunt who treats the whole affair as theatre: Washington Square turns a drawing-room courtship into a quiet battle of wills. This quiz follows the book from the first dance to the last page. It asks who the characters are and how they fit together, what the Doctor suspects and how far he will go to prove it, what happens on the long journey abroad, and how James chose to end the story. It also looks behind the book, at the anecdote that gave James his plot and at the stage and screen versions that took it to audiences who had never opened the novel. It is written for students revising the novel, for book clubs, and for anyone who has just finished it and wants to see how much stayed with them. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even from the ones you miss.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Dr. Austin Sloper of Washington Square is certain Morris Townsend courts his daughter for what?
Her money
Her money is the lure, the Doctor decides, since Morris has already run through a small fortune of his own. Morris even warns Catherine that her father will call him mercenary.
Q 02What does Dr. Sloper threaten to do if Catherine marries Morris Townsend in Washington Square?
Disinherit her
He vows to disinherit her, a threat that frightens Morris far more than Catherine. She has a comfortable income of her own either way.
Q 03Under what title did Henry James's Washington Square reach Broadway in 1947 and cinemas two years later?
The Heiress
The Heiress ran for 410 performances on Broadway, and its 1949 screen version went on to win four Oscars.
Q 04Who won her second Best Actress Oscar playing Catherine in the 1949 film of Washington Square?
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland set the film in motion herself: she saw the story on Broadway and asked a director to adapt it for her.
Q 05What becomes of Catherine Sloper in Washington Square after Morris Townsend deserts her?
Stays single for life
She stays single for life, declining a widower with three little girls and a clever young lawyer. Charity work and her own routines fill her days instead.
Q 06Washington Square, where Henry James set Dr. Sloper's house, lies in which Manhattan neighborhood?
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village was the author's own first home: Henry James was born in 1843 at 21 Washington Place, just off the square.
Q 07Which ghost story about a governess did Henry James publish eighteen years after Washington Square?
The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw first ran as a serial in Collier's Weekly, and readers still argue over whether its ghosts are real or imagined by the governess.
Q 08How does the brilliant Dr. Sloper privately regard his daughter Catherine in Washington Square?
Plain and commonplace
Plain and commonplace is his verdict, and he is even glad his dazzling wife did not live to see how their child grew up.
Q 09Which Downton Abbey star played meddling Aunt Lavinia in the 1997 film of Washington Square?
Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith made Aunt Lavinia a comic schemer who meets Morris in secret, thrilled by a romance she treats as her own melodrama.
Q 10In the 1949 film of Washington Square, what does Catherine do when Morris returns at night to elope?
Bolts the door
She bolts the door and goes up to bed while he pounds on it from the street, a revenge that Henry James's book never gives her.
Q 11Catherine Sloper of Washington Square has ten thousand dollars a year of her own, left by whom?
Her mother
Her mother, a New York belle who chose the young Doctor from a dozen suitors, died within two weeks of Catherine's birth and left her that income.
Q 12In Washington Square, Catherine meets Morris Townsend at what kind of gathering at her aunt's house?
An engagement party
An engagement party for her cousin Marian brings them together: Marian is to wed Arthur Townsend, and Morris arrives as Arthur's cousin.
Q 13Henry James, the New York-born author of Washington Square, became a citizen of which country in 1915?
Britain
Q 21Where does Aunt Lavinia Penniman hold her secret meeting with Morris Townsend in Washington Square?
An oyster saloon
An oyster saloon on Seventh Avenue is her choice, after she rules out the Battery as too cold and windy. Morris orders a stew and eats it in front of her.
Q 22Aunt Lavinia Penniman of Washington Square was widowed at thirty-three by a husband of which profession?
Clergyman
A clergyman with a sickly constitution and a florid way of preaching, he left her no fortune, so she came to stay with her brother and never went away.
Q 23In Washington Square, Catherine's cousin Marian is to marry Arthur Townsend, who works as what?
Stockbroker
Britain had been his home for decades, and he took citizenship during the First World War, a year before his death in London.
Q 14Which Henry James novel about Isabel Archer was published the year after Washington Square?
The Portrait of a Lady
The Portrait of a Lady began its serial run in 1880, the very year Washington Square appeared, in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's.
Q 15Which Henry James heroine, an American flirt abroad, made his name two years before Washington Square?
Daisy Miller
Daisy Miller shocks the Americans in Rome by going about with an Italian admirer, and her 1878 story established James's fame on both sides of the Atlantic.
Q 16Which Martin Scorsese film drew on the 1949 film of Washington Square for its central marriage?
Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon took its couple from it: Scorsese modelled the bond between Mollie and Ernest Burkhart on Catherine's with Morris.
Q 17Before it became a fashionable address, the real Washington Square in New York was used as what?
A burial ground
A burial ground for the city's unclaimed dead lay there from 1797, and the remains of more than 20,000 people still rest beneath the square.
Q 18Dr. Sloper of Washington Square quizzes Mrs. Montgomery about Morris Townsend; how is she related to Morris?
His sister
His sister is a widow with five children, and she ends the interview by begging the Doctor not to let Catherine marry her brother.
Q 19In Washington Square, Dr. Sloper confronts Catherine about Morris in a lonely valley of which mountains?
The Alps
The Alps suit his purpose: alone with Catherine on a deserted pass, he warns her that he can be very hard, and she still will not yield.
Q 20When Morris Townsend backs out in Washington Square, which city does he claim business is calling him to?
New Orleans
New Orleans, he says, to buy cotton. Catherine offers to brave the yellow fever and go with him, which is not the answer he was hoping for.
A stout young stockbroker of only twenty, Arthur soon brings his cousin Morris to call on the Slopers, and the courtship begins.
Q 24In Washington Square, what color is the gold-fringed satin gown Catherine wears when she meets Morris?
Red
Red satin trimmed with gold fringe is her one bold purchase, and her ironic father asks whether this magnificent person can really be his child.
Q 25In the closing sentence of Washington Square, Catherine Sloper sits down in the parlor and picks up what?
Her needlework
Her needlework, which James calls a morsel of fancy work, is taken up again for life, as he puts it. It is a quiet picture of the years ahead of her.
Q 26Dr. Sloper asks Catherine to promise never to marry Morris Townsend once he is dead; how does she reply?
She refuses to give it
She refuses to give it, though she has no wish to marry him, and the Doctor answers by cutting her share of his fortune to a fifth.
Q 27Before Catherine's birth in Washington Square, Dr. Sloper fails to save which member of his family?
His only son
His only son died at three, a boy the Doctor expected great things of, and the daughter born two years later struck him as a meagre substitute.
Q 28Back in Washington Square, Dr. Sloper guesses Morris has been a regular guest and vows to check what?
His wine
His wine is the first thing he thinks of, and with reason: Aunt Lavinia had welcomed Morris so often that he took to sitting in the Doctor's own study.
Q 29What did Henry James think of Washington Square, which critic Donald Hall said everybody likes?
He thought it poor
He thought it poor, or poorish in his own word, and said the only good thing in the story was the girl.
Q 30Which composer of Appalachian Spring won an Oscar for scoring the 1949 film of Washington Square?
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland had already been nominated for Of Mice and Men, Our Town and The North Star before this period drama finally won him the statuette.